Did my resting heartbeat today for the first time in ages - it's always been mid-50's, but today it averaged 44. I'm either too laid-back and need to work harder, quite fit, or there's something wrong with either my 'ticker' or my watch!

Anyway, at 51 I'm pleased and just wanted to brag to someone other than my wife!

Your resting rate goes down as you become more aerobically fit. So low/mid 40s is better than mid-50s. At the peak of bicycling season, mine will get down to 42. Probably mid-50s right now, if I bothered to check.

Nice job on the RHR, 44 BPM's lower and I'd be worried for a minute or so.

I've been determining mine over the past two weeks and it seems to be around 48-50, looks like you have bragging rights so far.

When I was a lot younger and fitter it got to the upper 30's low 40's. I use to love the look on a nurse's face when she would take my pulse.

Now no matter how hard I work seems like mid to upper 50's. My upper range seems to have come down too. I don't use a HRM so this is more perceptual than measured.

In the off-season my RHR is around 54. I've never checked it when I am at mid-season. I'm 64.

Last summer when I was in much better shape, it was about 52. This week I gave blood at work and the nurse checked my BP and pulse twice, then told me I had the lowest pulse she'd checked that day at 56. I was pretty tickled considering the weight I've put back on over the winter and less than impressive gym attendance! I'm 52. Oh, BP was 120 over 66.

Lower 40s. At the doc's office last May, the nurse asked, "Are you alive in there?"

What surprised me was that I've only been out half a dozen times this year and not at all last year, but I gave up alcohol three years ago and generally speaking feel better than I did in my 20's. I know we all try to kid ourselves about how young we feel, but honestly since cutting out the booze I've felt re-born.

Know why this is funny? Because when i saw the title, "Resting Heartbeat," before I read the post, i was already trying to think of a way to drop my own resting heartbeat into a response while pretending to answer whatever question you asked.
Actually i haven't taken it in awhile. but last time i did, the morning before a century for which i'd trained really hard, it was, uh... 38.

I'm impressed at how low it is. Mine is 60 (at age 56) and it's been 60 for as long as I can remember. Not that I'm going to it, but do you think it would go down if I were to ride a hard 50 miles every single day?

That's good... I remember Seb Coe saying his was 38, when he was winning Olympic medals. That's the lowest I've heard of from a person that was still alive!

60 @ 60

I got a 37 about a year and a half ago in the doctor's office during an EKG as part of an annual check-up. I was 69 at the time. Never have measured the actual resting. I make a point of getting my HR above 90% of measured max periodically for health reasons. It does impact resting HR.

A couple of months ago I got a 42 just walking around before a walk/jog to get my heart rate monitor's GPS to acquire satellites.

Al

Hate to break the bad news to you but resting heart rate has way more to do with heredity than fitness. We actually had a big discussion about this on a group ride on Sunday.

How many cardiologists in that group? Somebody stay at a Holiday Inn Express? Mine sure varies with my fitness.

My RHR is 39 on occasion in the morning before I get out of bed. That and $4 will get you a latte down at Starbucks. The only use I know of for RHR is to check for over-training. If your RHR in the morning is elevated, it can indicate over-training.

I've noticed a lower resting heart rate the morning after an extra strenuous weight training routine, but I've never made any measurements to show that it wasn't a quirk. I've never checked after a bike. So I just did a Google search out of curiosity.

Hardly anything out there with Google Scholar. The only one I could find was:

https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Ab..._effect.9.aspx

Endurance exercise training has a minimal effect on resting heart rate: the HERITAGE study
WILMORE, JACK H.; STANFORTH, PHILIP R.; GAGNON, JACQUES; LEON, ARTHUR S.; RAO, D. C.; SKINNER, JAMES S.; BOUCHARD, CLAUDE

Abstract
This study determined the effects of a 20-wk endurance training program(The HERITAGE Family Study) on resting heart rate (HRrest). HRrest was obtained on a sample of 26 men and 21 women during sleep; during resting metabolic rate and resting blood pressure measurement periods in the early morning following a 12-h fast and 24-h post-exercise; and at rest prior to a maximal bout of exercise. Following training, the subjects exhibited a 16.0 ± 9.4% (mean ± SD) increase in˙VO2max (P < 0.05), but the HRrest for each of the resting conditions was decreased by only 1.9 to 3.4 bpm (P < 0.05), or an average across the three conditions of 2.7 bpm. In a larger sample of 253 HERITAGE subjects, HRrest obtained only at the time of the resting blood pressure measurement decreased by only 2.6 bpm, while˙VO2max increased 17.7 ± 10.0%. It is concluded that there is a significant, but small, decrease in resting heart rate as a result of 20 wk of moderate- to high-intensity endurance training; which suggests a minimal alteration in either, or both, intrinsic heart rate and autonomic control of HRrest.


But in the popular literature or regular Google, you get a lot of hits. Here's one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate


"Resting heart rate (HRrest) is a person's heart rate when they are at rest: awake but lying down, and not having immediately exerted themselves. Typical healthy resting heart rate in adults is 60–80 bpm,[8] with rates below 60 bpm referred to as bradycardia and rates above 100 bpm referred to as tachycardia. Note however that conditioned athletes often have resting heart rates below 60 bpm. Tour de France cyclist Lance Armstrong has a resting HR around 32 bpm, and it is not unusual for people doing regular exercise to get below 50 bpm."

I think it's so commonly known the resting HR does respond to exercise that nobody studies it. I doubt Armstrong was born with a 32 RHR. On the other hand, his heart volume is in the top 99% or there abouts according to tests at the Cooper clinic.

Then too, I doubt atheletes would still be using the Kavonon concept to define their HR zones if resting HR was not responsive to fitness. My understanding is that you recalulate your Zones every few months to accomodate the change in RHR as one's fitness improves. Maybe not.

I might add that there is a logical rational for a decrease in RHR. Based on my reading, heart volume per stroke increases with training. More blood/beat should mean fewer beats required to fuel a resting body.

Maybe I need a night in a Holiday Inn Express.

Al

54 @ age 61 It used to be 62, heart rate that is.

"... while˙VO2max increased 17.7 ± 10.0% ..."

So for each workout, I can expect my VO2max to increase on the average 17.7%???? Wow, in just a few weeks, I should be right up there with Lance!

You might want to reread it more carefully.

Al

Well Al - I'm with you, been about 60 (which could be off +/-2) for ever - no matter what my fitness level has been. I guess we should RHR envy based on this thread.

If lower is better, is zero the best?

As long as you can maintain adequate cardiac output...

My wife saw a programme on TV last night. There's a crocodile that only eats once a year and then rests - during which time, its heartbeat goes down to 3 bpm... bragging rights to Mr Croc.

Mine was actually getting a bit too low, and I was feeling sluggish much of the time, until I realized that this was a known effect of beta-blockers for BP medication. I saw my regular doctor about it and he was surprised -- said there was no reason I need to be on a beta blocker and he would not prescribe it to any of his more active patients (I'm a runner as well). He switched me to another combo of BP meds and now my HR acts more normally (still in the 50s at rest, but at least it speeds up when needed).